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Crown Potteries Company employee photograph collection

 Collection — Folder: SP045
Identifier: SP045

Scope and Contents

This collection includes a photograph, small photograph album, and two copies of an advertisement from Crown Potteries Company in Evansville, Indiana and Mammoth Cave in Kentucky ranging from 1935 to 1952 regarding the company, its employees, and the city of Evansville. The single photograph shows a large group of men, women, and children, probably Crown Potteries Co. employees and their families, at the entrance sign for Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, around the 1930s. The album appears to be from a visit to Evansville and possibly the pottery plant in 1952.

Dates

  • circa 1930

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Administrative Note

Crown Potteries Company originates with A. M. Beck, an Enlgish immigrant who moved to Evansville, Indiana in 1882 and started a small pottery. Two years later, Beck died and his pottery was sold to Bennighof, Uhl, and Company, which began the production of whiteware, a broad class of cermaic products that are white to off-white in appearance and usually contain a glassy component. In 1888, a larger pottery was built outside city limits at the northeast corner of Division Street and Crown Avenue. By 1891, Bennighof, Uhl, and Company relocated to Huntington, Indiana, having sold its pottery buildings to the Flentke family, who renamed it Crown Pottery Company. In 1895, Crown Pottery Co. specialized in "white granite and decorated ware" and comprised a large facility with several outbuilding. Peoria Pottery Co. of Peoria, Illinois merged with Crown Pottery in 1902, they were renamed Crown Potteries Company. By 1913, the company employed about 400 workers and was owned by a syndicate of which Aaron M. Well was president. The company operated until at least the mid-1950s and the factory buildings in Evansville were razed in 2010.

Sources:

Historic Evansville. "Crown Pottery Co." Accessed June 6, 2019. http://www.historicevansville.com/site.php?id=crownpottery.

"Lightning Causes $25,000 Damage to Crown Pottery." Evansville Press, March 24, 1913, 1.

Mason, Thomas O. "Whiteware." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Accessed June 6, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/art/whiteware.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Map of Evansville, Indiana. New York: The Sanborn Map and Publishing Co., 1895. Fire Insurance Maps online, 2019. Accessed June 6, 2019. https://fims.historicalinfo.com/fims.aspx.

Wikicollecting. "Crown Potteries Co." JustCollecting.com. 2015. Accessed June 6, 2019. https://www.justcollecting.com/miscellania/crown-potteries-co.

Extent

0.01 Cubic Feet (1 folder)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

This collection is arranged by subject.

Custodial History

This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as a records transfer from Indiana Division in 2017/08.

Accruals

No further additions are expected.

Processing Information

Collection processing completed 2019/06/06 by Brittany Kropf. EAD finding aid created 2019/06/06 by Brittany Kropf.
Title
Crown Potteries Company employee photograph collection
Status
Completed
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository

Contact:
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671